China Blocks Access to WikiLeaks

China has blocked Internet access to WikiLeaks’ release of more than 250,000 U.S. Department of State cables, with its Foreign Ministry saying that it does not wish to see any disturbance in China-U.S. relations.

“China takes note of the government reports. We hope the U.S. side will handle the relevant issues,” Hong Lei, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said at a Beijing news conference on Tuesday. “As for the content of the documents, we will not comment on that.”

Access to the WikiLeak’s Cablegate page, as well as certain Chinese language news articles covering the topic, have been blocked in the country since Monday. Other articles from the Chinese press that are accessible on the web appear to only concern the U.S. response.

The ban on WikiLeaks comes as one of the major revelations provided by the the release[2] was a document linking China’s Politburo to the December 2009 hack of Google’s computer systems. An unidentified Chinese contact told the U.S. Embassy in Beijing that China’s Politburo had “directed the intrusion into Google’s computer systems,” the New York Times reported Sunday[3], citing one of the cables.